Gardening is more than just playing in the dirt

By Raven Pearce | 8th Grade, Trinity Lutheran

I magine a place where you can grow your own food and harvest it, where you feel like a family, where you work and form bonds with other kids, where you learn in a fun way and in a healthy environment.

For me that place is our very own garden at Trinity Lutheran School. We don’t just play in the dirt. We actually discover many methods to create and maintain a garden, such as:

• Learning the seasons to plant certain fruits and vegetables
• Telling the differences between – and classifying – rare and common plants
• Learning the importance of eating healthy foods
• Building connections in the community to preserve the garden

Farmer Michelle, our instructor, says, “The garden can be applied to every subject we’re learning in school.” After school you’ll find her working in the garden or giving vegetables to students to take home. “My favorite part is watching kids get excited about planting or harvesting.”

Eighth grader Jeri also enjoys the garden. “The garden is important by helping us learn how to meet new people, care for, and grow plants. Sometimes it can teach a student how certain insects help the plants, others eat the plants, and how to take care of both types.

“My favorite part of garden is harvesting the food during fall,” Jeri adds. “Some of my favorite things to do are getting to grow things with my friends, meeting new farmers who come to teach us, and getting to be outside.”

At our school garden you learn a lot of things, but the garden isn’t about just putting a seed in the ground, adding some sun and water to it. It’s about growing the seed into a plant and nourishing it with all the things it needs to grow and be healthy.

Lastly, in the garden it doesn’t matter who you are, what your strengths and weaknesses are, or if you’re not as good at a skill as someone else. It’s about creating a community.

“I think the garden can bring people together. Everyone has different strengths and when you put them together you can accomplish anything,” says Farmer Michelle.

I agree. Every day I see smiling faces of students working together in the garden, problem solving and learning something new. That’s what Trinity Lutheran garden is about.